More Than Forgiveness | Holiness Week 3
One day, one person, one reason … the Day of Atonement was for the Hebrews what Good Friday is for the Christians, only better. In other words, we have a lot to learn about Good Friday that only the Day of Atonement can teach us.
The Way In | Holiness Week 2
Steve DeNeff: The Way In
Holiness is not just a standard but proximity to the Presence. It’s not something we have, but something we enter. Yet how does one get into the Presence? “Who of us can live with a consuming fire?” (Isaiah 33:14). The way in begins with sacrifice, not as a bribe but as a gift. But how do we sacrifice today? What offering do we bring to the Presence?
The House of the Holy | Holiness Week 1
The big story of the Bible is of God’s relentless pursuit of the world, of his people and of his desire to live among us. But this God is a consuming fire (Ex 24:17; Is. 29:6; Heb 12:29). So how do we approach the God who lives in unapproachable light”? The way in begins … with Leviticus.
Perfect Love
According to Jesus, “love” is the measure of our spiritual growth. But how is the love of a Christian different from other loves? Here are 4 levels of love, from the lowest to the highest, from the most carnal to the most complete. And here’s what’s involved in moving from one level to the next. How “perfect” is your love for God and others?
In Praise of Boredom
Most of us hate to be bored and we go to great lengths to avoid it. But there are two kinds of boredom: the holy and the unholy, and one of them is good for you. Have you ever wondered what God might be up to in those seasons when nothing is happening, and how those seasons are crucial for building the muscle that will carry you into your better years?
The Sanctification of Desire | Free at Last Week 11
Steve DeNeff: The Sanctification of Desire
As we conclude our Ten Commandments series with the final commandment, “You shall not covet…” we’re reminded that God isn’t just concerned with our actions—ultimately he’s after our hearts. What is possible when even our desires, our inclinations, are transformed?
The Name | Free at Last Week 4
What does it mean to misuse the name of God? What does it mean to use the name properly? This sermon will explore how we can live into this commandment: only by revering the name YHWH (Law) can we treasure it, then be at home with it: “Father” (Gospels), and center our lives around the gravity of God’s life, doing “everything in the Name” of the one who called us (Epistles).
Undistracted Worship Undivided Heart Undefiled Bodies | Free at Last Week 3
God’s command against idols is not simply about statues or images; it is about the ordering of our loves. This sermon invites us to ask: What are we giving our hearts, bodies, habits, and imaginations to? The call of God is not merely to avoid false worship, but to become whole people whose lives are re-formed around him. We cast down idols not because worship is optional, but because we were made to worship the living God with undivided hearts and embodied lives. Since we are made in God’s image – in fact, we are the only part of creation that is – idolatry is a distortion of not only God, but of us as well.
The Freedom of Obedience | Free at Last Week 1
There are three levels of obedience. Most are stuck in the first. But freedom awaits us in the third.
The Weapons of Resurrection | Easter Week 6
Resurrection is a weapon. It is a shot that reignites a fiery engagement between forces claiming lordship over creation. It is not only about a man. It’s about a war.” And since our battle is not against flesh and blood, we cannot use conventional weapons nor engage in the adversary in the same way. These are the weapons, and this is how we fight.
Church of the Resurrection | Easter Week 5
The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power, not to overwhelm our adversaries but to endure them, to expose them, to convert them.
Fully Alive | Easter Week 2
If salvation is like passing from death to life (Jn 5:24; 1 Jn 3:14), then discipleship is the practice of resurrection with the hope of one day being fully alive.
One Called Resurrection | Easter Week 1
On Easter, the future has come. It is here. We are on it. It is under us. Life has broken into death. This changes everything.
Divine Touch | The Altar Week 5
“See! This has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” We have lost touch with the idea of atonement and settled for forgiveness instead, but you don’t need an altar for forgiveness.
The Intercessor | The Altar Week 4
“David built an altar to the Lord there… (and) the Lord answered prayer on behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.’” When we intercede at an altar, things become possible that were not possible before.
If it Dies | the Altar Week 2
“Now that I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” The altar is a place where we lay down what we can least afford to lose.
On Rebuilding the Altar | The Altar Week 1
“They built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord . . . (even) though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.” There is a difference between a church with an altar, and an altar with a Church.
A Marriage Made in Heaven | Follow the Lamb Week 5
“Let us rejoice and be glad, for the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.” The single most compelling metaphor for salvation in the Bible is not a trial with God on the bench and humanity in the dock. It’s a wedding with Christ at the altar, awaiting the arrival of his bride, the Church. When we think of salvation in these terms, it changes almost everything about the way we live each day.
Breaking Evil | Follow the Lamb Week 3
The fool speaks folly, and his mind is busy with evil… but the nobleman makes noble plans and by his noble deeds he stands.” Sometimes we lost Jesus in our hurry to conquer evil in His name. Here in the middle of Revelation – when the minds of many are busy with evil – pay attention to the faithful, and how they overcome evil with good. John’s vision of Jesus’ victory over evil is bigger than our little fantasies of getting even because it involves the conquest over evil itself.
A Familiar Stranger | Follow the Lamb Week 2
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” What would Jesus notice if he came to Church, to His people, and looked at their heart? For some it would be an unnerving visit from a familiar stranger, someone they knew who knows everything about them. The seven letters of Revelation are descriptions of seven different souls. Which one describes us? Which describes you? And what would Jesus tell us to do?